A Chance [29]

I didn't do anything much that afternoon. After lunch, I was headed straight back to my room and plopped on my bed. Hugging a pillow, I curled into a ball and thought about everything from the beginning. The presence I have always felt around. The threat messages. The car chase. The peeping tom outside my window. Those guys who wanted to kill me in the alley. Finn Marshall. The Amulet. The strange gruesome murders. Everything was a convoluted riddle and I was supposed to find the appropriate keyword to untangle it all.

I thought about what Zach and Lucas have mentioned. What if that part was true? The way Grace straight away denied the fact and rushed to her room afterwards was bothering me, deepening my doubts. I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to know the story behind everything. I wanted to know how Lucas was able to channel my thoughts, if he ever did. I wanted to know about those strange marks on victim's head. I wanted to know who was behind everything and why were they doing this. And before I realized what I was doing, I had again created a thick web of questions in my head, which demanded to be answered with proper reasons and facts. But it was useless to lie here and wonder about these things when I have no one to satiate my curiosities.

Burdened by all the questions and doubts, I wanted to get my mind on something else. I switched on my laptop and decided to watch one of my favorite movies that I have saved for times like this, when I had nothing else to do.

It was six, when the movie ended. I felt like sleeping after finishing it, so I went downstairs and decided to get myself a cup of coffee. As I was preparing my coffee, Grace walked out of her room and handed me a list of things she wanted me to buy for her.

"Would you buy these? We are out of things in the kitchen." She said and sat on the stool in front of me.

I took the list from her hand and nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Where is your bracelet Kat?" She asked abruptly, noticing my empty wrist.

"Oh . . . I took it off. It's in my room." I lied. I completely forgot about finding it. It's been days since I had lost it. I wasn't sure how Grace would react if presented with this information.

"Hmm." She eyed me and I didn't know what to do, so I just smiled. "Wear it all the times. It looks good on you." She complimented. But it didn't sound like one. It was more like an order.

I nodded.

"I should start preparing the dinner now. It's almost time." She said looking at the clock hanging on the living room wall and walked inside the kitchen, opening cupboards and taking out things from them. "Hey Kat?" 

"Yes!"

"Get me those quickly, we are really out of things here." She said.

"okay." I replied and rushed straight to my room to get some money and the amulet. Dropping the amulet inside my sweater, I grabbed the keys of my chevrolet and walked outside the door.

The sky was dark tonight. There was no moon. Clouds were crowding in the sky as if a storm was about to arrive, prepared to wreck everything that was in view. The wind was chilly and whizzed through with a developing rage. I hopped inside the Chevrolet and backed it through my driveway and drove to the nearest departmental store.

Neon lights glowed, highlighting the name of the store. I parked my car in a little space I found at the end of the parking lot. Once inside the store, I took the list out from my sling bag and started picking up the things which I was supposed to. Almost fifteen minutes later, I excited the store with a bag full of groceries and other household necessities. I unlocked my car and dropped the bags inside on the passenger seat. I was about to start the engine, when I noticed a familiar figure on the other end of the road.

It was him. Finn Marshall.

He was walking down the street, hands planted inside the pockets of his black trench coat. His pepper hair were long now, reaching to the nape of his neck.

Before I could think of anything, I jumped out of my car and slammed the door shut. I took my jacket from the backseat and wearing it, I pulled the hood on my face. I decided to follow him. I wanted to know about everything. The key to the answers of all the questions was just a few feet away from me and I cannot miss the chance. Not when I have come this close to getting my answers.

I broke into an automatic jog and crossed the street without bothering to look for the traffic. A group of boys, not much older than me, passed through me. They were laughing raucously among themselves and punched each other arms. Ahead of them, I could see him meandering down the street. I tried to keep a distance between us, so he doesn't realize that he's being followed. The little foot traffic on the street was heading in an opposite direction and as I followed him, I saw him turning left. He continued to walk on the street.

The street was empty and lined with abandoned buildings and somber-coloured warehouses, each with large bay doors for unloading trucks. Some of them were dark and splashed with graffiti. There were no pedestrians. I wasn't especially comfortable, walking down an empty street, following a man during the dark, but I wanted to know where he was going. Furthermore, I wanted to get the answers to all of my questions which have been pestering me since days.

The wind grew icy and the clouds above were dense now, ready to pour down any minute soon. Unaware of being followed, he climbed a set of steps on his right and disappeared into an abandoned building. As soon as I heard the door shut, I ran towards the building. It was a two-storeyed building, blemished and vandalized by the atrocities of time and bad weather. Still it stood tall among all the other structures around it. I noticed an empty space, where a window must have stood, where shattered remains of sharp glass were clustered. I peeked inside from the window, careful of the glass shards. The room inside received a thin beam of light from the room behind it. I noticed a disorderly cluttered pile of boxes scattered along the right wall of the room on which a clock or a devastated frame hung. I tried to unlock the door but it was locked from inside and there was no other entrance to the building, except for the window. But the broken sharp-edged glass which was still intact on the frame, made me choose otherwise. 

I looked around there was no one to be seen around. I had two options now. Either walk back to where I have parked and go home. Or to do it the traditional way, by knocking the door till he opens it. I decided to choose the latter. I had come this far to finding my answers and I was not turning back. Moreover, Finn knew about me. He had saved me earlier. And I don't think he would turn me down. I had questions and I was getting my answers today. He had once said, that we will meet again. Maybe this is the time we meet and I get to learn everything that I had been dying to know about.

* * * * *

Dear readers,

Please support this book by adding it to your library and by voting with powerstones. If you have any theories or suggestions about characters then please let me know in the comments.

Thankyou so much for reading and keep reading!